Ten years on the Euphrates...

Front matter

TEN YEAES

ON

THE EUPHRATES;

Introduction

oO^f^Oo

The volume here offered to the Christian public is a record of faith, toil, and success in the missionary work. The many who have had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Wheeler will enjoy a more full exhibition of the work in which he has been engaged than it was possible for him to give in a single address. The larger number who have not heard him will gladly welcome from his pen such an account of the actual method pursued and the progress made in the evangelization of eastern Turkey.

One of the greatest wants of our churches is a clear, definite notion of the missionary work. To many minds the evangelization of the world is so nearly impossible — impossible at least within any limited period — as to have but slight hold upon their Christian sympathies. To labor for it is a duty, to be sure, because commanded by our Lord,

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INTRODUCTION.

and its realization some day is a proper object of faith and prayer, because promised in revelation ; but, as compared with the more immediate calls to Christian effort at home, it is too remote to stir the heart, and prompt to earnest, prayerful labor and sacrifice to bring it about.

This little volume will do much to supply this want. It sets forth by precept and abundant illustration the object and method of the missionary enterprise. It is an earnest, practical work, by an earnest, practical man. It presents just those facts which a practical man wants to know, because he is enabled by them to see just what the work is, how it is done, and to be done, in order to the evangelization of the world. No thoughtful man can rise from its perusal without new faith in the power of the gospel, and new hope of its speedy and final triumph. The problem is no longer impracticable or impossible, or remote of solution. The economy of men and means here illustrated will be a surprise even to most who claim to be familiar with the history of missions ; while the results attained will furnish most unmistakable evidence of the presence and power of our Lord fulfilling the promise coupled with his last comjnriand.

INTRODUCTION.

VII

In this view, this volume is a most valuable contribution to the current missionary literature of the time. It is a full, faithful exhibition of the apostolic method of conducting missions. It shows that the method of the apostles is the true method for our time; that the object of the missionary enterprise is not to introduce civilization, to Anglicize or Americanize other nations, not to transfer the entire system of civilization and culture which the gospel has developed among us, but to introduce the gospel itself, as the divinely-appointed means for the regeneration of all nations. It is then to be left to work out its legitimate results in the social and moral elevation of those who receive it, in accordance with their peculiar intellectual and moral endowments. The essential thing to be accomplished by missionary labor is " to plant the Christian church, and to set its members at work for Christ."

"Men from America and England," says our author, " can never do all the Christian work necessary to the complete evangelization of the heathen world. The churches of Asia, Africa, and the islands of the sea, must, and can, and will do it, if we only establish them with this end in view."

" Whatever else we may do, however many in-

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INTRODUCTION.

dividual souls we may save, our missionary work will be little, if any, better than a failure, if we fail to plant such churches. In saying that the work is a failure, I do not mean that those who give to the different nations the Bible in their own tongues make a failure. This work may be well, nobly done, and much other incidental good be accomplished. That Bible may be put into the hands of many persons, and general knowledge of Christian duty be disseminated, which, if wisely directed to its proper ends, would result in still greater good ; but in the failure to secure the great, the single ultimate aim of missionary efforts, — the planting of an independent, self-sustaining, self-propagating Christianity, — these incidental benefits can no more be cited as evidence of success than could the roads made and the canals dug by our armies in the South be adduced as evidence of success, if those armies had failed to put down the rebellion."

It is the exhibition of this method in all its practical details, clearly apprehended and steadily pursued through many trials and difficulties, for a period of ten years, and vindicated at last by remarkable successes, that gives such a value to this volume at the present time.

To evangelize a region of country larger than

INT ROD UCTION.

IX the State of Massachusetts, covered with hundreds of villages and cities, with a population of from four to five hundred thousand souls, speaking three different languages, — this was the work undertaken by three married missionaries, assisted a part of the time by one single lady in a female boarding-school. They entered upon it in humble reliance upon Bible truth, the blessing of the Holy Spirit, and the presence of their great Leader. They made Harpoot the base of their operations ; selected fit centers for influence amid the surrounding villages, set up schools, and j)ut young men of promise upon special training to become preachers and teachers, gathered believers into churches, ordained pastors over them, and taught the people to support their own Christian institutions, and to engage vigorously in the work of home evangelization ; till now, with the addition of the Arabkir field, their work is represented by thirteen churches, — six of them entirely independent, — by sixty-six towns and cities in which the gospel is preached, by seventy-eight native preachers and pastors, by thousands of men and women reading the word of God in their own language, and by thousands more of children and youth gathered into schools ; in a word.bv the foundations of a Christian civilization

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INTRODUCTION.

laid upon a sure basis in the affections of an earnest, self-sacrificing, Christian community. In a few years, when the gospel shall have been introduced into about one-twelfth of the villages and cities of the country, and enough light-centers have been set up to secure, with the divine blessing, the complete success of the Christian work through the piety and zeal of the native churches, the missionaries may leave this field for the " regions beyond." The pecuniary expenditure for the carrying on of this work, for the salaries of missionaries, for aid in the support of native preachers and pastors, in church-building, and in schools, including the partial support of pupils in the two seminaries, now numbering about ninety pupils, has been, upon the average, a little short of six thousand dollars a year ! Yet here were men enough and money enough for the prosecution of the work. Such is the economy, as to men and means, of the apostolic method here revived. In accordance with this method, the eastern Turkey Mission ask for but twelve men, to occupy four centers, in order to the evangelization of a region four times the size of the State of New York, with a population of three millions or more. In accordance with this method, the advance of the mis-

INTR OJJ UCTION.

XI sionary work during the last ten years in western Asia, mostly in the Armenian Missions, is marked by the following figures : native pastors increased from five to thirty-four; native churches from thirty-four to sixty-seven ; church-members from one thousand one hundred and twenty-seven to three thousand two hundred and forty-eight ; and contributions from five hundred dollars to over twelve thousand dollars per year.

Degraded and given over to superstition as the people have been, yet these Missions among nominal Christians have had a great advantage over those in purely heathen lands, in consequence of the belief in one God and in the Scriptures. The object and the method of missionary effort are everywhere the same, however, as illustrated by apostolic example, whether in the synagogues of the Jews or amid heathen temples.

It is by such a method that the evangelization of the world becomes a possible problem for the present generation of Christians. In view of the preparation made during the last fifty years, the acquaintance gained with the peculiarities of different countries and nations, the languages mastered, the Scriptures translated, the prejudices overcome, the transforming power of the gospel

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INTRODUCTION.

illustrated so widely by the lives of missionaries and of native Christians ; and in view of the wonderful providences by which the world is now open to Christian effort, and made one by easy intercommunication, and bound together by commercial intercourse, the lessons of this volume have a special significance ; they open up to the Christian church the solemn duty and the high privilege of a world's evangelization.

The example of Harpoot may seem to be exceptional. It may be so to some extent in the peculiar character of the men there, working harmoniously together, unlike, but not unequal, supplementing each the others. An interior station has some advantages over those exposed to the demoralizing influences of too early contact with civilization without the gospel. It is exceptional, too, in the fact that this station is almost the only one that has had an adequate number of men to carry on the work in its many details, and to exercise the proper superintendence of the native agency. One or two men could not have done it ; and yet it is sad to see how often in the past, and now also, one or two men are left to attempt it ; and, if possible, it is yet more sad to see other centers of equal promise left unoccupied, when such immense

INTRODUCTION.

XIII results to the kingdom of Christ seem in waiting as the reward of missionary labor. • But, aside from these general considerations, this work will be of great value and interest to all missionaries, and to all who contemplate engaging in the missionary work. It is rich in suggestions, not only of the true method of labor, but of practical experience in dealing with all classes of persons, and not least with native Christians, — -in developing among a people, ground down by political and ecclesiastical oppression, a spirit of manly independence, in bringing them to a willing and hearty support of their own institutions, and to engaging in Christian labor for those about them. To such, the chapters on " The Work to be done," " The Native Ministry," " The Seminaries," " The Position of the Churches and Pastors," will be of special interest. The whole volume, in short, may well become a "vade mecum" to every missionary candidate, and will hardly fail of furnishing useful hints to the tried veteran in the service.

The brief survey of the missions in western Asia, the historical and geographical details of the different fields, will suffice to give the general reader an accurate conception of the condition and prospects of the Christian work in this part of the globe, now the center of so much political interest.

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INTRODUCTION.

The maps and the illustrations give increased definiteness to the graphic descriptions of the writer. The fresh incidents of missionary life, the occasional side references to customs at home, the keen insight into character, the warm glow of an earnest Christian spirit thoroughly devoted to this great work, but, more than all, the record of success, of independent, self-supporting Christian churches, of finished work, as the fruit of these ten years of faith and toil, of patient continuance in well-doing amid hopes sometimes disappointed, amid the ingratitude and slowness of heart of some, and the loving faith and cheerful sacrifices of others, — all these varied elements combine to make this an attractive volume to all who love the cause of Christ and the progress of his kingdom.

Possibly the story of the sacrifices which the native Christians of eastern Turkey are willing to make for Him they have so recently learned to love may quicken the faith of believers at home, inspire new hope, and prompt to greater effort to extend the blessings of the gospel to all mankind.

Contents

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Chapter I. Missions In Turkey And Persia

Purpose of the book — "American Board" — Annual meetings of missions — The Syria Mission — Education — Mission to Central Turkey — Language — Apostolic policy — Mission to Western Turkey — Stations — Languages — The press — Effort to make the churches self-supporting — Difficulties — Modern crusaders — _ZVestorian Mission — Mountain Nestorians — Bader Khan Bey — The Female Seminary — Amadia and Mosul — Missionary graves — Mission to Eastern Turkey — Nineveh — Babylon — Ur of the Chaldees — Mardin — Diarbekir — Mr. Walker's grave — Labors — Bitlis — Van — Erzroom — Harpoot. ..... 15

Chapter II. Eastern Turkey — Divisions And Races — Harpoot

MISSION-FIELD.

Geography of the country — Mesopotamia — Assyria — Battle-field — Armenian king Abgar, and Jesus — Gregory the " Illuminator *' — ■ Boundaries of Armenia — Koordistan — Surface, climate, and pro- , ductions — Ararat — "A little wine "—Mingled population — Arabs — Yezidees — Koords — Kuzzlebashes — Dada — Pantheism — Greeks — Hypocrisy — Turks — Cretan war — The " sick man " — Turkish toleration, and Russian and Greek intolerance — Mohammedanism and Mars' Hill — Nominal Christians — Sects — Armenians — Origin — History — Martyrs — Character — Reverence for the Scriptures — Fitness to be missionaries — Want of stability — Missionaries in Harpoot — The field — Eden — Position and scenery of Harpoot — Principal cities of the district — Gospel in advance of roads. . . . . . . . . .38

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CONTENTS.

Chapter III. The Work To Be Done

Little child and heathen mother — Work of missions not alms-giving

— Paul — Dangers — Free pills and gospel — Spoiled church and discouraged missionary — "Poor helpers'" salaries— The gospel ministry cheaper than that of false systems — Godliness gain — A "free" gospel not valued — Pastorless church — Harpoot — The subscription-paper — Clamor silenced — The man in search of a " cheap religion " — The deceived man — Professed friends hindering the missionary work — Niggardly Christians poor pillars in the church — Schools and seminaries not introductory to the gospel,

# but secured as a fruit of evangelization — The gospel a power of itself — Leaven, not bread — Not a system, but a systematizer — Essentials and non-essentials — Missionaries to plant the Christian Church — The rebellion to be put down 68

Chapter IV. Pastors, Self-support, Self-government, The

CHURCHES' THREEFOLD CORD,

Apostolic example — Paul, Titus, Timothy — " Ordain elders in every church" — Harpoot church — Seven years' struggle — Missionary pastors not to be found — Not fit — Not supported — Eight of the churches to furnish their own ministry — Each church to choose its ownpastor — The Perchenj " call " — The lot cast — salaries of pastors — Missionary aid in supporting — The churches independent — They and their pastors "commended to the Lord" and let alone — Communion etiquette — Faith and practice — Ephesian elders — Cretans — Hard work in Harpoot — Methods of action — Added territory and churches — " Christ sent us not to baptize, but to preach the gospel " — The Malatia church begging the sacraments — " The pretended cripple " — Missionaries' strength — to what given 92

Chapter V. The Truth Read

First works — Ignorance of the people — Missionary pastors — Palu women whipped into reading — Results — "Little teachers" — Schools — Expense — Statistics — Armenian schools — Book sales

— Power of the Bible — " Thief Maghak" — Najaran — The men

CONTEXTS.

XVII beaten — Korpeh — Osman Bey and the honest tenant — Kevork Dashjian and the.borrowed Bible — A profligate saved — " You do the preaching, I'll take the beatings " — The enraged choolgee and his primer — The Perchenj teacher and his Bible — Church formed

— Home-missionary society— Hooeli — " O Lord, give us open doors and hearts " — The disobedient mob — Chapel built — The Bible-laden donkey 113

: CHAPTER VI.

THE TRUTH PREACHED AND SUNG.

Primitive preachers — Paul's preaching a model for the missionary

— " Do you know how to read? " — The missionary a map-making pioneer — Hats and audiences — No broad aisle — " Miserable sinner and not ashamed to own it " *- " Thou art the man " — The repentant thief — The law preached — No motto-sermons — Order of Sabbath services in Harpoot — Languages — Congregational singing — Chapels — How built — Expense — No pews — Dedicated to God — Evangelization there and at home — " Free churches." . 143

•CHAPTER VII.

THE NATIVE MINISTRY — HARPOOT SEMINARY.

The difficult problem — Churches to furnish their own ministry — Where to be educated — Plan of Harpoot Seminary — Terms of admission — Study and labor united — Missionary superintendence in winter — Graduation — Licensure — Ordination — Seminary studies — Systematic theology — Preaching — "What is a good sermon? — Care in selecting men — Hirelings rejected — Care in supporting men — Salaries — The plot — " Can't you cast that care too on Jesus ? " — "I wonder the earth didn't swallow me up " — Pecuniary matters carried to Jesus — Care in educating men — The Bible as a teacher — Pupils not overeducated — Trained in their own vernacular — No English — Syria High School — Bebek

— No smoking — ■ Ministerial dignity overestimated — The cure — Statistics of seminary — Prospective transfer to the care of the churches — Garabed Piiibosian — His letter. . 162

CHAPTER VIII.

y

HARPOOT FEMALE SEMINARY.

No unmarried men ordained — Object of the seminary — Nursery —

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CONTENTS.

The Bible the chief text-book — The blundering readers — Day pupils — Buying tickets and books — The two weeping candidates

— Public interest excited — Teachers prepared — Girls as boarding pupils — Terms of admission — Protestants at a premium in the matrimonial market — Missionary teachers not for mere common schools — Statistics of seminary — Graduation — Diplomas — Christian spirit of pupils — Kohar — Her evangelistic labors — " The Lord has been with us all the time " — Sabbath labor of pupils in villages — Letter from Miss West — The young widows — The Mardin woman — The " Mothers' Association" — Bible and theology lessons — " God's plan of employing man" — All made easy — Missionaries agreed — Need of a female seminary in Mardin — Proposed seminary of the churches — Kohar's contribution

— Letter from Miss "West — Closing exercises of seminary in 1867

— " Chewing the cud" — Christ's " diplomas " — The five foreign missionaries — The gifts — The " reunion " — Singing in five languages — The " good-bye." 186

CHAPTER IX.

FRUITS.

Arabs, Koords, and Turks — Fanaticism gone — Crescent and cross — Armenians — Priesthood despised — Monasteries impoverished — Papists and the Bible — Preachers and preaching — The feeble brother — "Send us a senior, if you please" — Moral reform — The quarrelsome women — Temperance — " Woman's rights " secured — "All the missionaries' wives angels" — Converts — Statistics of churches — Churches in prospect — Geghi Kasabah — Sarkis and his Testament — Palu. and the twelve women — The "devout and honorable women" of Choonkoosh — Women's plastering-bee — " Harpoot Evangelical Union " organized — Constitution — Its work — Education Society — Bible societies — "Why don't you feed your donkey?" — Home missions — The female evangelist of Harpoot — Foreign missions — Young man in search of light — The interesting monthly concert — The impatient little boys of Diarbekir 222

CHAPTER X.

TITHE-GIVING — REVIVAL.

Plan of campaign — Hoh — The donkey's food — The hungry preacher The gospel put upon its own merits — Shepik — The sluggish

CONTENTS. XIX

pastor — Blind " J olm Concordance " — " Bring ye all the tithes "

— Deep poverty — The Lord's store-house — Pastor recalled — Meeting of Evangelical Union — Means of securing a revival — Saints in biographies — Discussions — Resolution on tithe-giving — Hulakegh — The arrow in the mark — Collectors dispensed with

— The scoured cents — The converted tithe-giver — The windows of heaven opened — The converted infidel — "lam that cursed fig-tree " — Restitution made — The awakened blasphemer — The cross too heavy — The converted Unitarian — Characteristics of the revival — Work of the "feeble" brethren — The city moved — Prayer-meetings — Hooeli — The crowded chapel — Scorners learning to pray — The Bible adding a story to the houses — The seven aged widows — Pride rebuked and humbled — The impatient women — The Pharisee converted in answer to prayer — Christians learning to pray — Danger escaped. . . . 248

CHAPTER XL

POSITION OF THE CHURCHES AND PASTORS.

The two committees — Independence and self-support united — Uncalled-for anxiety — The rejected motion — The loved timber — " Bless the Lord for that word " — The circular — " Subjection to the beneficence of others!" — The Koordish work — "May the Lord give you a happy new year" — Covetousness not yet all gone — Beggars here at home ! — Enthusiastic liberality not piety

— Source of our joy — The day dawning — Only one-fourteenth of the cities and villages to be occupied by us — One missionary to one-fourth of a million — Medical missionaries' work — Vase of flowers and banyan tree — Three resolutions — Trouble may come

— Hours of discouragement — Causes of gratitude — Noble band of preachers — Pentecostal blessings anticipated — Minot's Ledge light-house — Mist on Harpoot plain — Sun of Righteousness arisen 286

CHAPTER XII.

THE FOUR WANTS.

All to help — Popular ignorance of missions — Missionary publications not read — Monthly concert neglected — First way of helping — Help by prayer — Praying by " substitutes " — God to be "inquired of" — The "prayer-list" — Third mode of helping — Selfish professors to be set at work — Look out for number one —

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CONTENTS.

Sleeping-car religion — Fourth want — The polyglot — " He's not a bit of a gentleman " — " Pray always " — Common sense needed — The fastidious man — Knowledge of human nature — Courage and firmness of purpose — The victim of conservative timidity — Missionary ditching and changing base — " Consecrated " generals — The missionary campaign — " First-class " work — Urgent call for men — The American drawing-room — Catholic and Pagan invaders — The Chinese to be evangelized at home — James, and the Jerusalem pastorate — Laborers to seek work, not place — Missions not to convert, but evangelize the world — Results seen — Missionary engineering — Call for men — Some unable to sing in heaven 306

A few words on the pronunciation of proper names will aid the reader.

a as in father ; e. g., Adana, Harpoot, Van, Marsovan.

e as a in lady ; i. e., a without the vanish or ee sound which is heard when a is pronounced separately.

i as in machine; e.g., Sivas, pronounced See-vas; Shepik, Shapeek ; Mardin, Mar-deen.

H as oo ; e. g., Mosul, pronounced Mo-sool.

ai as i in fine; e. g., Haine, Hi-na.

eh as e; as, Korpeh, Kor-pa.

a following i is pronounced separately ; e. g., Amadia, A-ma-dee-a ; Sophia, So-fee-a ; Malatia, Ma-la-tee-a ; Diarbekir, Dee-ar-bek-eer.

eu has the sound of u in further ; e. g., Pashaeunk.

gh as a guttural, g hard ; e. g., Aghansi, pronounced A-gan-see. Gh in Eski Zaghra is silent.

g is uniformly hard ; e.g., Egin.

ch as in chain, e. g., Chermook, Choonkoosh.

kh like the guttural German ch. If the k be silent and the h pronounced with a strong aspiration, it is very nearly correct ; e. g., Klmnoos, Ha-noos ; Kharpoot, Har-poot, and now so spelled.

TEN YEARS ON THE EUPHRATES.

Chapter I. Missions In Turkey And Persia

OULD that "mine adversary" might have the weariness, and perhaps also <tp^j? the reproach, of writing this book, and ^ leave to me the more congenial employment of meeting the friends of Missions face to face, and rehearsing what God, by his Word and Spirit, has been doing in the field committed to my associates and myself. But the interest manifested by many audiences in a part of the story, as told by word of mouth, has led me to feel that a more full narration by the pen would be interesting and profitable, especially among that great majority whom no verbal account can reach. Hence this book.

TEN YEARS ON THE EUPHRATES.

the purpose of which is sufficiently indicated by the title-page.

I have not the time, the knowledge, nor the disposition to attempt a history of the missionary work in Turkey, from the day when those noble and honored pioneers, Messrs. Fiske, Parsons, Smith, D wight, Goodell, and their associates, opened the missionary campaign in Syria and western Turkey. That labor I leave to other and abler hands, and shall confine myself chiefly to the more limited district in which my immediate associates and myself have labored. A glance at the whole field will, however, give a more definite idea of this particular portion of it and of the work which is going on both there and here. If the pronoun " I " occur quite frequently, it will be remembered that the story is necessarily to a great extent one of personal reminiscences, and that any attempt to eliminate this element and to speak in the third person would only result in making the narration modestly formal, if not dull, in place of being more vivid and lifelike.

The mission-field occupied by the American

MISSIONS IJST TURKEY AND PERSIA. 17

Board * in Turkey and Persia has been geographically divided at different times to suit the convenience of the missionaries occupying the different stations, who, or at least a part of them, are obliged to meet once a year to consult upon the plans and measures for the ensuing year, and to agree upon the amount of money which shall be asked from the Board for carrying out their plans. Since Turkey, with here and there an unimportant exception, has no railroads nor even carriage roads, and locomotion must be slowly and laboriously effected upon the backs of camels, horses, mules, or donkeys, the territory occupied must be quite minutely divided, in order to prevent too great an expenditure of time, money, and strength in reaching the place of annual meeting.

At present, the divisions are five. The territory lying along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean from 83° to 35° north latitude, and embracing the cities Beirut, Sidon, Tripoli,

* This term, or the term "Board," wherever used in this volume, applies to the "American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions/' which is the organ of the Congregational and ISew School Presbyterian Churches.

TEN YEARS ON THE EUPHRATES.

and othe rs, IS called the " Syria Mission." The language used in this Mission is Arabic, in which the entire Bible, and other religious books, have been given to the people. It is, however, a discouraging fact that, while this mission-field lias been occupied more than two-score years, during which time much has been done for education by establishing numerous schools, and at length a seminary, and a college* of the highest grade, yet, owing to untoward circumstances, little, if anything, has been done in the establishment of independent, living Christian churches ; and the church in Beirut, organized in 1848, is still without a pastor of its own. It is, on the other hand, encouraging to know that some of our brethren there are beginning to feel that this state of tilings must not longer exist.

Passing northward, to the territory lying about the gulf of Scanderoon, and embracing the cities of Antioch, Adana, Aintab, Marash, and Oorfa (Ur of the Ghaidees), we enter the

* This college, which is at Beirut, is not under missionary control, nor supported by funds of the American Board.

HUSSIONS IN TURKEY AND PERSIA. 19

•

" Mission to Central Turkey," so called from its somewhat central location in the empire. Here our hearts are cheered at meeting a people, who, exiles from Armenia, the home of their fathers, and having for the most part lost their national language and adopted the Turkish, the language of their Moslem conquerors and oppressors, are in their lonely exile, as were the captive sorrowing Jews in Babylon, more susceptible of religious impressions, and more ready to give heed to divine admonitions, than are the haughty Arabic-speaking populations to the south of them.

Happily, all the missionaries here have given due weight to the example of the first foreign Christian missionaries, who went from Antioch in the southern, to do their missionary work in the north-western, part of this present missionary field, and, in placing the church of God in its completeness foremost, have received the seal of divine approval in a truly spiritual work, and over the hundreds of converts whom the Master has honored them to gather into churches have had the pleasure of m